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Sabtu, 28 Desember 2019

Iraq defense contractor death: American defense contractor killed, several troops wounded in rocket attack - CBS News

An American defense contractor was killed in a rocket attack on an Iraqi military base in Kirkuk on Friday, the U.S.-led coalition fighting Islamic State said in a statement. Several U.S. service members and Iraqi personnel were wounded.

The contractor's name has not been released.

Colonel Myles Caggins, a spokesman for the U.S.-led coalition fighting Islamic State forces in Iraq and Syria, said Iraqi security forces were leading the investigation and response to the attack.

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No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.

Such attacks have taken place on several occasions over the past few months, with U.S. officials for the most part blaming Iran-backed fighters. In November, a barrage of Katyusha rockets targeted an Iraqi air base that houses American troops south of the city of Mosul on Friday

The Iraqi military said earlier Friday that several rockets were launched into Iraq's K1 military base, which houses U.S. and Iraqi forces, according to Reuters.

Iraq has been roiled since October 1 by protests that have left more than 450 people dead, the vast majority of them demonstrators killed by security forces firing tear gas and live ammunition. The mass uprisings prompted the resignation of former Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi late last month.

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2019-12-28 04:06:00Z
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West could be destroyed by new Russian hypersonic missiles that have entered service - Express.co.uk

In a dramatic challenge to the US the Avangard hypersonic rocket is believed to be capable of bypassing America’s missile defence system. It travels at 27 times the speed of sound and can hit almost any point on the planet.

Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed with the new weapon Russia is leading the world in weapon development for the first time, rather than merely following the US.

An Avangard missile was launched from Dombarovskiy missile base in the Urals in December 2018, before hitting a target 3,700 mile away.

China has also tested a hypersonic missile, the Dong Feng 17.

The missile, which can travel five times the speed of sound, was displayed at a Chinese military parade.

America is also working to develop hypersonic missiles, but is believed to be some way away.

In August defence secretary Mark Esper suggested the US is unlikely to have a working hypersonic missile of its own for a couple of years.

Sergei Shoigu, Russia’s defence secretary, announced the Avangard missile system had entered active service.

Earlier in the year President Putin commented: “It heads to the target like a meteorite, like a fireball.”

He stressed the manoeuvres was in keeping with international laws.

Mr Wu said: “It is not necessarily connected with the regional situation.”

Part of the operation will be held in the sensitive area of the Gulf of Oman, which is connected to the Strait of Hormuz.

Every day around a fifth of the world’s crude oil supply - 20 million barrels - passes through the Strait.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard has a heavy presence in the busy 21-mile wide channel.

The waterway was the scene of clashes between Iran and foreign tankers this year.

The drills come amid simmering tensions between Iran and the US.

The Islamic Republic’s economy continues to be crippled by sanctions imposed by President Trump.

After Mr Trump pulled the US out of the Iran nuclear accord and slapped on the sanctions, Tehran blamed the other signatories for failing to protect its economy.

The UK, Germany, France, Russia, China and the EU all signed the treaty.

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2019-12-28 02:33:00Z
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Jumat, 27 Desember 2019

Netanyahu Wins Likud Party's Primary, Setting Up Another Election Run - NPR

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Israeli Prime Minister won a decisive victory to remain the leader of the Likud Party — and he's now promising more concessions from the U.S., as Israel prepares to hold a general election in March. Jack Guez/AFP via Getty Images hide caption

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Jack Guez/AFP via Getty Images

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will be his party's leader when Israel holds a national election in March, after notching a landslide victory in the Likud Party primary Thursday. Netanyahu had faced a rare challenger in Likud's primary race, but he secured more than 70% of the vote.

"A huge win!" Netanyahu said via Twitter. He also promised to take Likud and Israel to great new achievements. Some of them hinge on new concessions from the U.S., where the Trump administration has broken with decades of precedents by recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and moving the U.S. Embassy to the city.

In a victory speech after Thursday's vote, Netanyahu promised more gains to his conservative base.

"We will set our final borders, bring about American recognition for Israeli control over Jordan Valley, the Dead Sea and our sovereignty over every settlement in Judea and Samaria," Netanyahu said, according to The Jerusalem Post. He added that his government will "obtain a defense pact with U.S. that will ensure Israeli freedom to act, we will defeat Iran and achieve a peace pact with Arab countries."

Netanyahu, Israel's longest-serving prime minister, will run for reelection despite problems that range from his own legal troubles to his party's failure to secure a majority in parliament in September's election.

The prime minister faces several criminal charges, helping to fuel recent gains by the rival Blue and White Party and its centrist leader, Benny Gantz. And those issues don't seem likely to fade away: Netanyahu was indicted on bribery and other charges last month.

Gantz issued a statement Friday calling for Israel to "set out on a new, clean path under Blue and White's leadership." The alternative, he said, is to "stay stuck in a place with a sitting prime minister facing three charges of corruption, fraud and breach of trust, who is placing his own personal interest above the best interests of Israel's citizens."

Neither Netanyahu nor Gantz was able to broker a ruling coalition after a very close vote in autumn. And with Israel in political gridlock, the country will hold its third election in the span of a year.

While those concerns didn't change the opinion of Likud voters who see Netanyahu as their best chance to regain control, there are also warning signs for the prime minister in Thursday's results.

"Netanyahu had a resounding victory with 72.5% of the votes," NPR's Daniel Estrin reports from Jerusalem. "But voter turnout in his party primaries was only about 50% — and more than a quarter of the voters didn't choose Netanyahu. That could mean Netanyahu will have a hard time getting enough right-wing voters to come to the polls to help him win national elections in March."

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2019-12-27 14:01:00Z
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Kazakhstan plane crashes into two-story home after takeoff killing at least 12, injuring 54 - Fox News

A plane carrying nearly 100 passengers and crew on board crashed into a two-story building in Kazakhstan shortly after taking off Friday, killing at least 12 and injuring more than 54.

Officials said the Bek Air aircraft – identified as a Fokker-100, a medium-sized, twin-turbofan jet airliner – had just taken off from Almaty International Airport when it lost altitude at 7:22 a.m.

There were 98 passengers and crew aboard. At least 54 people were hospitalized with injuries, at least 10 of them were in critical condition.

In this handout photo provided by the Emergency Situations Ministry of the Republic of Kazakhstan, police and rescuers work on the site of a plane crash near Almaty International Airport, outside Almaty, Kazakhstan, Friday, Dec. 27, 2019. Almaty International Airport said a Bek Air plane crashed Friday in Kazakhstan shortly after takeoff causing numerous deaths. The aircraft had 100 passengers and crew onboard when hit a concrete fence and a two-story building shortly after takeoff. (Emergency Situations Ministry of the Republic of Kazakhstan photo via AP)

SLIDESHOW: PLANE CRASHES AFTER TAKEOFF IN KAZAKHSTAN

The plane’s tail hit the runway twice during takeoff, indicating that it struggled to take off, Kazakhstan’s deputy prime minister Roman Skylar said.

On its way down, the plane hit a concrete fence and the two-story building.

In this photo provided by the Emergency Situations Ministry of the Republic of Kazakhstan, police and rescuers work on the side of a plane crashed near Almaty International Airport, outside Almaty, Kazakhstan, Friday, Dec. 27, 2019. Almaty International Airport said a Bek Air plane crashed Friday in Kazakhstan shortly after takeoff causing numerous deaths. (Emergency Situations Ministry of the Republic of Kazakhstan via AP)

In a statement on its Facebook page, the airport said there was no fire and a rescue operation got underway immediately after the crash.

Around 1,000 people were working at the snow-covered site of the crash.

Video footage showed the front of the broken-up fuselage rammed against a building and the rear of the plane lying in the field next to the airport.

PHILIPPINES TYPHOON KILLS 28 ON CHRISTMAS; AT LEAST 12 MISSING

One survivor told reporters that the plane started shaking fewer than two minutes after takeoff.

Police stand guard as rescuers assist on the site of a plane crash near Almaty International Airport, outside Almaty, Kazakhstan, Friday, Dec. 27, 2019. Almaty International Airport said the Bek Air plane crashed Friday in Kazakhstan shortly after takeoff causing numerous deaths. The aircraft had 100 passengers and crew onboard when hit a concrete fence and a two-story building shortly after takeoff. (AP)

“At first the wing jolted really hard, then the right. The plane continued to gain altitude, shaking quite severely, and then went down,” Aslan Nazaraliyev said.

The plane was flying from Almaty, Kazakhstan’s largest city and former capital, to Nur-Sultan, the country’s capital formally known as Astana.

In Almaty, dozens of people lined up in front of a local blood bank to donate blood for the injured.

In this handout photo provided by the Emergency Situations Ministry of the Republic of Kazakhstan, police and rescuers work on the side of a plane crash near Almaty International Airport, outside Almaty, Kazakhstan, Friday, Dec. 27, 2019. Almaty International Airport said a Bek Air plane crashed Friday in Kazakhstan shortly after takeoff causing numerous deaths. The aircraft had 100 passengers and crew onboard when hit a concrete fence and a two-story building shortly after takeoff. (Emergency Situations Ministry of the Republic of Kazakhstan photo via AP)

Skylar said the cause of the crash was unclear, but an investigation is underway to look at whether pilot error or technical failure were factors.

“A commission... will establish whether this was pilot error or technical issues. The runway was in an ideal condition,” he said, according to Reuters.

GIRL DIES ABOARD PLANE AT LAX AFTER SUFFERING HEART ATTACK

President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev declared Dec. 28 a national day of mourning.

Government officials said the plane underwent deicing before the flight, but Nazaraliyev recalled that the wings of the plane were covered in ice, and passengers who used emergency exits over the wings were slipping and falling down.

Local authorities had earlier put the death toll at 15, but the Interior Ministry later revised the figure downward.

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Police stand guard as rescuers assist on the site of a plane crashed near Almaty International Airport, outside Almaty, Kazakhstan, Friday, Dec. 27, 2019. The Kazakhstan plane with 98 people aboard crashed shortly after takeoff early Friday. (AP)

The plane was reported to be 23 years old and was most recently certified to operate in May. The company manufacturing the aircraft went bankrupt in 1996 and the production of the Fokker-100 stopped the following year.

All Bek Air and Fokker-100 flights in Kazakhstan were suspended pending the investigation of the crash, government officials said.

Fox News' Edmund DeMarche and the Associated Press contributed to this report

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2019-12-27 12:32:33Z
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Passenger jet crashes shortly after takeoff in Kazakhstan, killing at least 12 - The Washington Post

At least 12 people were killed and more than twenty hospitalized after a plane operated by a local airline crashed in Kazakhstan on Dec. 27.

MOSCOW — A passenger plane with 98 people on board crashed shortly after takeoff near Almaty airport in Kazakhstan on Friday, killing 12 people and injuring dozens of others.

The Bek Air jet, a Fokker 100, hit a concrete barrier before crashing into a two-story building, Kazakhstan’s Civil Aviation Committee said in a statement. All Bek Air flights and Fokker 100 aircraft in Kazakhstan were suspended from operations pending an investigation.

The flight took off at 7:22 a.m. local time and was en route to Kazakhstan’s capital, Nur-Sultan. There was no fire at the crash site.

Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev expressed condolences to the victims on Twitter, adding that a government commission has been created to investigate the crash.

“All those guilty will be severely punished in accordance with the law,” he wrote.

Forty-nine people have been hospitalized, 18 of them in critical condition, according to Kazakhstan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs.Among the dead is the captain of the aircraft, Marat Muratabaev, and Kazakh journalist Dana Kruglova, of informburo.kz, the ministry said.

Vladimir Tretyakov

Police stand guard as rescuers assist on the site of a Bek Air crash near Almaty International Airport in Kazakhstan on Friday.

Kazakh Deputy Prime Minister Roman Sklyar told a news conference that eight of the 12 deaths occurred at the scene. Sklyar said pilot errors and technical malfunctions are considered as preliminary causes of the crash, according to Russia’s Tass state news agency. The aircraft’s tail touched the runway twice as it was taking off, he said.

Bek Air is a low-cost regional carrier based in Kazakhstan. Friday’s crash appeared to be the first for the airline, though not for the aircraft type. In July, a Virgin Australia Fokker 100 suffered engine failure after takeoff, and the crew unsuccessfully tried to restart the left engine. The plane was able to land safely with no injuries.

Another Fokker 100 flying from Germany to France experienced engine failure upon takeoff a year ago and landed safely back in Hamburg just 33 minutes after it had departed. Production of the aircraft stopped in 1997 after its Dutch manufacturer went bankrupt.

The Fokker 100 that crashed Friday was 23 years old, and Kazakhstan’s Civil Aviation Committee said a certificate of the plane’s airworthiness was issued in May. Bek Air has 10 of the jets in its fleet, nine of which were in use.

One woman who posted video from the crash site said emergency services took 20 minutes to arrive at the crash site. In another video, people standing beside the downed plane screamed for the ambulance in the background as a woman said, “People are asking for the ambulance, but they’re not coming.”

Kazakhstan’s Civil Aviation Committee said 40 ambulance crews went to the crash site to provide medical assistance.

This is the first major commercial airline crash in Kazakhstan since 2013, when a SCAT Airlines regional jet went down outside Almaty and killed all 21 people aboard.

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Today’s coverage from Post correspondents around the world

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2019-12-27 12:19:00Z
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Hong Kong announces 336 arrests during Christmas protests - Fox News

HONG KONG -- Hong Kong police arrested 336 people during the Christmas holiday as the city's protest movement continues to simmer, an official said Friday.

Chief police spokesman Kwok Ka-chuen told reporters that those detained between Monday and Thursday included 92 women and minors as young as 12. The arrests bring the number of people detained over the course of the protests to nearly 7,000, with a large proportion of student age.

Riot police gesture as they gather at a shopping mall during a demonstration in Hong Kong, Thursday, Dec. 26, 2019. (AP Photo/Vincent Yu)

Protesters, some donning Santa Claus hats, battled police over the holiday as the more than 6-month-long demonstrations look set to continue into the new year.

Kwok condemned what he called attacks on ordinary citizens at shopping centers and restaurants and vandalism of public infrastructure including subway stations, banks and the electrical grid.

"Their scheme is to silence those who hold dissenting views and to terrorize the public. Whoever disagrees with their violence will be met with violence," Kwok told reporters.

Black-clad protesters smashed shop windows in shopping areas, while police responded with tear gas and arrests. The protests demanding greater democratic rights show no sign of dissipating following an overwhelming victory by anti-establishment candidates in elections for district representatives earlier this month.

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The Christmas disruptions also raise concerns for the New Year holidays to follow and the longer Lunar New Year vacation in late January, a time that has led to violence and unrest in Hong Kong in the past.

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2019-12-27 10:40:30Z
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Grand Theft Auto V is latest battleground of Hong Kong protests - CNN

Popular online video game "Grand Theft Auto V" has become a battleground between protesters in the semi-autonomous Chinese city and their rival players in mainland China.

The online duel began after Hong Kong players discovered that their in-game avatars could dress like protesters, wearing black clothing, gas masks and yellow safety helmets. They shared the discovery last week on LIHKG, a social media platform and discussion forum similar to Reddit that is popular in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong has been rocked by anti-government protests for more than six months, with escalating violence and anger on all sides. The demonstrations began in June after the government introduced a bill that would have allowed the extradition of people across the border to face trial in mainland China.

The bill has since been withdrawn, but the protests have expanded to include calls for greater democracy and an inquiry into accusations of police misconduct.

GTA V is an action-adventure game that rewards gamers for committing virtual crimes. It allows dozens of players to interact simultaneously in "open world" environments, with bank heists and carjackings at the core of its gameplay.

While most video games keep the player busy on a predetermined course of action, open-world games allow greater freedom to explore. And it didn't take long for Hong Kong gamers to begin mimicking the real-life actions of hardcore protesters by throwing petrol bombs, vandalizing train stations and attacking police within the open world of GTA V.

A screengrab from the game shows a Hong Kong-based player adopting protester-style identity.

Mainland Chinese gamers were quick to notice, and several of them subsequently took to the Twitter-like social media platform Weibo to call on other players to defeat their Hong Kong rivals.

Using a derogatory term adopted by some police officers to refer to protesters, one Weibo user posted: "Cockroaches expressed their desire to kill GTA and beat us, the war in this game may become more fierce and fierce. Are you ready?"

Other Weibo users responded by posting screenshots of their characters dressed as riot police and wielding guns, with the posts captioned: "Ready!"

Several intense battles played out simultaneously, according to Hong Kong gamer Mickey Chang, who is in his 20s and plays games that are live-streamed on the YouTube channel Minilife HK.

Protester avatars threw petrol bombs at riot police controlled by mainland gamers, who responded with water cannons and tear gas. In the end, the mainlanders emerged victorious as they overwhelmed the Hong Kong protesters through sheer numbers, Chang told CNN Business.

Chang said that he liked to play as a protester because it helped to "raise awareness" overseas about the situation in Hong Kong.

"(GTA) is a fun way of engaging people with different viewpoints to discuss, since you can have up to 30 strangers on a server that may not know much about Hong Kong," he said.

Launched in 1997, the "Grand Theft Auto" series by Rockstar Games is one of the most successful in video game history. GTA V alone has sold over 125 million copies since its 2013 launch. But the series has long been criticized for its violent gameplay — the 2001 release, GTA III, achieved notoriety after it was discovered that players could hire a prostitute, have (offscreen) sex with her, kill her, and then steal her money.

CNN Business has reached out to Rockstar Games for comment about its use by Hong Kong protest supporters and their opposition.

This is not the first time that Hong Kong protesters have taken to video games to publicize their struggle. In October, Google removed a role playing game called "The Revolution Of Our Times" — a protest slogan — from the Play Store, citing a violation of its policies.

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2019-12-27 07:55:00Z
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